AIG bonuses are a distraction.

[JamesA1102]

While outrageous, the $170MM paid out in bonuses are less than 0.1% of the money AIG recieved in the bailout. This whole thing is a distraction manufactured by the GOP and the millionaire pundit class after having a couple of bad weeks thanks to Jim Cramer, Michael Steele and Rush.

[Eric J in MN]

1. It's a step in the right direction.

It should apply to all compensation at all companies which took bailout money and haven't returned it.

Federal workers aren't paid millions even though that would just be a small part of the federal budget.

Nor should people at bailed-out companies be paid millions and get to keep it.

[JamesA1102]

3. Agreed

I'm just saying the controversy is a distraction ginned up by the right to attack Obama.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. Personal Gain for helping to collapse the Market...

More of a catalyst, me thinks

[MannyGoldstein]

4. It's Useful Idiocy

Small change (!), but it is focusing attention on the fact that Geithner and Summers are running a *banker* bailout rather than a fixing the economy. The theory that if you just give enough money to the Rich, then everything will be OK, has been proven to be utterly wrong - as it was in the 1920s.

[JamesA1102]

5. This is exactly the BS I'm talking about.

Taking the AIG bonuses and then extrapolating what happened to bash those in the administration.

[FrenchieCat]

6. I agree with you.

But there is none so blind as those who believe that the media glee was induced by anything
more than playing games trying to down the part of power, in particular when it is the party
that will raise their taxes.

Good and to the point thread.

[MannyGoldstein]

11. Bonuses Are A *Symptom* Of A Fundamental Problem

The fundamental problems is that the same people are running the same institutions.
1. Those people are clearly stupid and/or greedy, otherwise these institutions would not be where they are today. They are not fit to run banks - they need to be removed.
2. The bankers continue to have only their own personal best interests in mind. They continue to dissemble over the value of their assets, so they are holding the money they are being lent because they need it to try to regain the balance necessary given the *true* asset value.

Handing these people cash to spend however they want is what a Republican president would probably do. Actually... isn't this the exact same strategy used by Bush?

Until we nationalize the banks, we are simply siphoning cash into the toilet.

[MarjorieG]

8. We still need the financial market, which is globally interconnected. That's not all we're doing.

[Clear Blue Sky]

7. They fiddle (AIG bonuses) while Rome (economy) burns...

[gmoney]

9. I'm not even sure it's the money... it's rewarding poor performance that has people pissed.

Most companies that have a bad year, nobody gets bonuses, especially the people who caused the problems.

AIG had the worst year in history, yet still they feel it's appropriate to give millions in bonuses to the cretins and crooks who fucked up. Meanwhile, portfolios and pension plans are being bankrupted as a result of their malfeasance. I could easily retire on a million bucks, but I'll never see that kind of money. These guys stumble into jobs that pay huge sums, fuck up, and feel entitled to "retention bonuses."

[JamesA1102]

12. You're missing the point

I'm not talking about the AIG bonuses themselves but this whole manufactured controversy of "when did the President know?".

[Javaman]

10. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5283025&mesg_id=5283025

[amborin]

13. they distract from seeing the $$$$$$ that went to Goldman Sachs:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8274140&mesg_id=8274140>